Question: Effective Training focuses on different types of analysis and job descriptions. I would like to touch briefly on some of the potential problems with creating job descriptions because everything always has its opposites. The biggest problem is interpretation! Some people can become confused with a job description and its duties, which can lead to misinterpretation. Let me put this into perspective...We hired a person at my family company to be a low-level manager for the parts department at one of our dealerships. The job description clearly defined this person's daily duties as well as overall job expectations. This person came from another dealership where he essentially held the same title; however, we found out that the job duties were very different.

This person was essentially responsible for administration duties such as controlling a portion of the inventory, communicating with some of the vendors for Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and after market parts, etc. This person interpreted that he was also in charge of the staff members in inventory, parts, and even service. This person took what he was doing at his former job and interpreted his new responsibilities to be the same, which was not the case. We eventually let this person go because he convinced himself that he was acting more like a mid to upper-level manager instead of his real position, which caused some additional issues. The moral of this experience is that job descriptions may be effective and written with clarity; however, the person may not interpret the duties and responsibilities correctly. This can cause issues at times.

What can we do better to ensure that job descriptions are not misinterpreted? What kind of training or education can HR professionals give so this type of thing does not happen?

Reference: Blanchard, N., & Thacker, J. (2013). Effective training (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.